Wednesday, August 10, 2011

No one can shut up a room of babbling scenesters like Suzannah Johannes. During her quiet and lovely half-hour set the only sound to be heard was the pop and hiss of PBR cans being opened (at least until the last song, when a group of young women chattered too loudly: perhaps the PBR had kicked in). This was our first time seeing Suzannah in awhile, and she was eccentric, chatty, and in fine voice as ever, supplementing her set with covers of The Association's "Never My Love" and a Cat-Power-like re-imagining of Heart's "Crazy On You" that turned the song into some kind of lullaby about stalking.

Prior to her set, Drakkar Sauna's Jeff Stolz played some sexy tunes about "licking peaches." (Chip: "I think there were some innuendoes in that song, but I could never quite piece them together") and a spine-tingling rendition of "Touch the Hem of His Garment," which he dedicated to "Hank" (isn't this a Sam Cooke song? or is it an old hymn? or interweb research turns up multiple theories). Check out @oxfordist 's video of one of Stolz's songs here .

And prior to Stolz, Drakkar's Wallace Cochran played three songs, including an ultra-wordy and very funny song about carnival geeks followed by an even-wordier song about the settling of the West and Mormon massacres that included long lists of various trails ("Santa Fe trail, Chisholm trail, Oregon trail, California trail.").

After Suzannah, the boys of Drakkar were slated to play a set together, but we had to leave at that point, as we were out of BYOB beers by then.

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Sadly, we failed to make it to the Nelson-Atkins this summer to see Monet's reunited Water Lilies triptych, but we did make it to Washburn University's Mulvane Art Museum in Top City yesterday to witness "The Art of the Brick," a very popular traveling Lego art exhibit by Nathan Sawaya (Chip: "I'm certain this was preferable to the Lilies."). Notice how these first two pieces seem to be being created right before your eyes as a little Lego man bursts forth, Alien-style, from the chest cavity of a big Lego man and another Lego man removes his face to reveal a new face beneath. And in the third: a Lego man mourns his dead Lego son. The exhibit was full of children cavorting about, but we predict they all had terrifying Lego nightmares after seeing these pieces.

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The Larryville SRS office has been "tentatively" and controversially saved, with the city agreeing "to pay half of a $450,000 local package" (LJ-World) to keep it open.

Today we offer this rant from one of our favorite LJ-World talkbackers, Oneeye_Wilbur, which covers a lot of ground besides the SRS closure:

Mayor Cramwell will later tell us how buying the buildings at 19th and Delaware will save the public money. And of course , Whineaug will be right along with the idea. The county just loves to spend tax dollars with no return. East Hills business park some 26 years ago, and still no return to the taxpayers, not even the principal amount.

87 jobs were not going to be lost. Mr. Hittle of the Journal World for some reason cannot communicate that information, unless of course some of the 87 employees do not live in Lawrence. Now there is another story to write about.

Let's see, in a couple of years, that builidng for SRS would be worth a million or so to sell to the public and then it can come off the tax rolls. What's Whineaug's plan for the soon to be owned property for Loring Henderson's playhouse project?

By the way, a private homeless camp has closed in Joplin, I bet Loring Henderson has a special T bus on the way."